Great idea, poor design.

At work today we were slow, so I decided to check out some of the new merchandise, enter the Exped SynMat.  The SynMat looks to be your basic insulated, non-self-inflating air mattress on the surface.  What you may not notice at first is the built in air pump, a fancy and potentially genius piece of engineering.  By including a pump in the mat, you don’t need to carry an extra bulky one with you, and by not inflating it with your breath you eliminate a significant amount of moisture that can accumulate inside the insulation, and reduce the chances of ice crystals forming in cold conditions.

The problem is that the thing has got to be one of the most annoying mattress to inflate that I have ever come across.  The pump system uses a two handed operation, one hand to cover the external valve, and the other to press the air out of the fairly low volume air chamber.  I longed to press my lips to the valve and blow it up with a few good puffs, but there would be none of that.  I grabbed a Pillow Pump by the same company and tried that.  With about double the air capacity of the built in pump and some open cell foam to act as a spring inside the air chamber, the Pillow Pump makes slightly faster work of the project, and yet I feel it kind of silly to resort to an, you guessed it, external pump after all that forethought to put the pump into the mattress.  I worked at inflating the mat for at least five minutes, far longer than I’ve ever spent messing with my trusty Therm-a-Rest pads.  Perhaps if I was on an arctic expedition I wouldn’t mind the setup for a warm night of sleep, but I don’t see anything like that popping up in my near future.

Don’t get me wrong though, the SynMat is pretty comfortable.  It sagged a little near my stomach when sleeping on my front or side, but felt pleasantly firm when I was lying on my back.  There was a sensation of warmth after a minute or two of lying there, providing some insight into the insulative properties of the mat.  I probably could have drifted off to sleep if I wasn’t on the clock.  No test in a controlled environment can match a good field test though.

Overall, unless you plan to go hiking up Everest or across the Antarctic,  you’ll probably want to stick to something a bit less work intensive to inflate, especially if you’re going to be dead tired at the end of your days.

OTA Trail Build: What did and didn’t work.

As  Marmot/Osprey rep Brian told us last night, “Sometimes you don’t know what you have till you see someone else’s gear,” or something to that effect.  You can go along perfectly happy till you see those extra little features that could make your life easier, or more comfortable than you already thought it was.

This last weekend my company sponsored an OTA (Ozark Trail Association) trail building event.  It gave me the time to get to know my gear again after having been stowed away for the winter.  So here’s a brief run down, of what worked, and what didn’t.

Tent: For the past few years I’ve been using the Walrus Trekker Tarp, a handy little tarp that uses trekking poles (I got a pair from REI a few years ago) and guy-out points for support.  The whole system is light weight, but I find a few crucial flaws with the design.  First and foremost, it can be a real pain to set up solo without practice, luckily I got some help, but there’s a lot to be said for free standing tents.  The covered space is huge, downright roomy if you don’t use the bug netting insert (sold separately).  Which I did use, especially given that I forgot my ground cloth.  The zippers on the tarp can be a bit of a reach, especially with the bug netting in the way.  I got a fair amount of condensation on the tarp, which could be explained by the extreme cold the first night, but should have run down the sides, or ventilated away.  There is approximately 6 inches of clearance from the ground depending on how high you choose to set your trekking poles, so air flow is not an issue.  This however, makes the tarp a poor choice for cold weather camping, as drafts at ground level can make for a cold, miserable night.

Overall I would suggest using this tarp/tent in warm to hot weather, when weight is a factor, and you can be reasonably certain that you can drive stakes soundly into the ground.  And I would certainly replace the stock stakes (plastic for the tarp, aluminium pegs for the netting) with something far sturdier like MSR Ground Hog stakes.

Sleeping Bag: My current down bag is an old Chrysalis from The North Face.  I’m a big fan of down, and since I know how to keep my bag dry, I’m never concerned about getting it wet and ruining it.  The bag is rated to around 25ºF, semi-rectangular, without a hood, and fully zippered.  When not camping I use the bag as a down comforter on my bed sometimes, so it rarely gets crammed into a tiny stuff sack.  The allures at the time of purchase were the rating (back before I really got comfort ratings), the shape that would allow me to toss and sprawl a bit in my sleep, and the lack of a hood which used to make me feel claustrophobic in my sleep.

As I noted earlier, the first night of this trip was cold.  Frost formed on our tents, ice formed on standing water, and I barely slept as I lay in my bag shivering.  One of the first things I wished for was a hood, even with a wool cap, my head was freezing, as well as my neck and shoulders.  I ended up using the hood of my Carhartt jacket to some success, but I learned an important lesson, when you’re cold enough, there is no claustrophobia.  There didn’t seem to be sufficient draft tubing along the zippers either, because there was a nice long cold spot snaking down the bag that night.  If I had been better prepared maybe I could have pushed the bag a bit lower and slept better, but I plan to replace the bag shortly with something much better.

Lighting: My Orbit lantern and my Petzl e+Lite (full review to come) both performed flawlessly at all temperatures encountered.

Tools: I was somewhat impressed to see that my trusty little Snow Peak Titanium Spork could pick up spaghetti as well as any regular fork.  I wasn’t expecting much out of the short tines, but it worked anyway.  I’ve loved that spork for years, I got it orignally because sporks rock, and titanium rocks, and the combination of the two is some form of awesome I can’t even describe.  I’ve found that since titanium is pretty horrible at conducting heat, the spork doesn’t get overly hot when submersed in boiling water, compared with steel utensils that can burn your mouth fairly easily if you aren’t careful.

Orbit LED Lantern by Black Diamond

This handy little light won an Editor’s Choice Award in the latest gear issue of Backpacker Magazine, and I can see why. It is lightweight, a minimalists dream, yet it isn’t lacking in simple features. These features are not all covered on the packaging, but I feel the need to bring them up, as they add to the sheer elegance of the product design.

• The dimming switch rests under the telescoping globe, this means that as long as the lantern is collapsed while turned off, there shouldn’t be any way for the power to get bumped on inside my backpack. This is a large advantage over lanterns I’ve had in the past where the power sits exposed on the outside of the body, the same lanterns I often find glowing when I open my pack in the evening.

• Atop the housing is a conveniently placed notch that gives easier access to the hanging hooks, but I’ve also noticed that the design would allow water to drain off the lantern if it was left out in the rain, rather than possibly pooling and leaking inside.

In the end, you have an insanely light weight, bright, and above all utilitarian lantern, and all for around only $30. I would highly recommend this lantern to anyone shopping around for a battery powered lighting solution

Hello!

Welcome to The Gear Nut, my new blog dedicated to reviewing products and gadgets that I come across. My primary focus is outdoor and camping goods, but perhaps you’ll find a few other bits of gear that cross my path as well.